


year 2, day 1

by MadHattie



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, IPRE family, Missing Scene, Spoilers for the stolen century arc, nah you guys can handle it, should I rate this higher for swearing?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 20:31:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10838883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadHattie/pseuds/MadHattie
Summary: The first time they leave a world, they mourn. The second time, they plan.





	year 2, day 1

The crew is eerily silent as they pass from the threshold of one reality to another, leaving a world swallowed by darkness for the second time. They’re all in a state of shock- being dissolved into strings of light and then reformed in the image of who you were a year ago will do that to you. They look around at each other, as if even after all the strange things they’ve seen, they still can’t believe what they’re seeing. Merle raises a hand to touch the scratch on his temple. The twins reach out to take each other’s hands. Magnus clutches at his chest, a look of fear and wonder in his eyes. 

It’s Lucretia, quiet Lucretia, who finally breaks the silence with a sob. She crumples where she stands at the captain's side, folding in on herself until she’s the same height as he is. Davenport is reluctant to abandon the ship’s controls as they hurtle through unknown territory, but he lays a gentle hand on Lucretia’s shoulder. Merle approaches slowly and hands her a handkerchief that he pulls from one of his many pockets. 

“Uh, you okay Mags?” Taako doesn’t let go of his sister, but he looks over at Magnus with as much concern as he ever lets himself show. 

“I, uh, I think I died,” Magnus mumbles, “but I’m okay.”

“Well, as long as you’re not fucking haunting us or whatever,” Taako retorts, and Lup lets out a barking laugh. “Hey guys, I think we might be fucking immortal or some shit.”

“We don’t know that for sure!” Barry raises his voice and the rest of the crew turns to look at him. “Just- we don’t know the extent of this phenomenon yet, so we shouldn’t act recklessly and just assume that everything will be okay.”

“Barry’s right.” Captain Davenport turns from the helm, having deemed the area safe enough to put the Starblaster on autopilot. “What you did back there was kind, Magnus, and it was certainly brave, but I don’t want any of you sacrificing yourselves again, at least until we have a better understanding of how this all works. Every single person on this ship is a valued and important crew member, and this mission would not be what it is without you. Your lives are precious, so don’t gamble with them.”

“What he means is that y’all shouldn’t be self-sacrificial dumbasses,” Merle pipes up from where he’s sitting besides Lucretia. The rest of them laugh, if a bit nervously. Magnus just shrugs. The room turns awkwardly silent.

 

Captain Davenport weaves them through the new solar system with practiced ease. There’s a single white dwarf star, and it orbits around a black void that is thankfully absent of streaks of color. Davenport steers them in the opposite direction, past barren planets that are barely larger than the three moons that had orbited their home world. About five planets out they find a planet that seems to be the same size as what they’re used to. Most of the surface is hidden by gray clouds, but as they descend it’s easy to see that the clouds are just like the ones at home.

It’s also easy to see that the planet is covered in thick sheets of ice, split into continents by bright turquoise seas. There’s not a bit of green in sight. Davenport brings them down easily onto the bare ground.

 

“Alright,” he says, finally turning away from the controls, “we need to come up with a plan of action. Most importantly, we need to figure out a way to stop that  _ thing _ from destroying another world. Lucretia, do we have any information in it that might be useful?”

“Um.” Lucretia pulls a journal from the pocket of her robe. “We know what it looks like, obviously, but I don't think that will be very helpful. In the last world it showed up briefly about a week after we arrived, and only a few days after the light of creation appeared. Then it came back to… to consume the plane. That occurred about a year after our arrival. 368 days to be exact. In our home world it appeared 361 days after the recovery of the light of creation, which happened approximately six days after the light fell to earth…” Lucretia sucks in a breath. “I think that thing is following the light, and I think it might be happening on some sort of cycle. We would have to make more observations to be sure, but-” She flaps her free hand with excitement. “We may have a way to track this thing, and if we can track it, then it’s possible we can stop it.” 

“Fuck yeah!” Magnus whoops, “Lucretia, can I hug you?” She nods, and Magnus wraps his arms around her, lifting her up with ease.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Davenport says, keeping his serious demeanor despite the rest of the crew’s cheer. “Lucretia, I’m very happy that you made this discovery, but we still have to proceed with caution, especially considering the stakes. We don’t want to make assumptions and end up losing another world.”

“But the idea of this phenomenon running on cycles is definitely something that we should look into,” Barry interrupts, “Sorry Cap’n, I just don’t want to give up hope as soon as we’ve found it.” 

“Yes, of course. I just wanted to make sure that no one gets ahead of themselves.” The Captain sighs, “Look, we’ve all had a very long day. Why don’t we all get some rest and we can formulate a plan tomorrow.”

“All right,” Barry says, and the rest nod in agreement.

“Dibs on the shower!” Taako bolts to the living quarters. “Taako needs some me time.”

Within seconds, Lup is in hot pursuit. “Get back here you asshole! Your showers always take like two fucking hours, and I don’t want to wait that long.”

A faint “I called dibs!” echoes down the hall. The rest of the crew watches until both Lup and Taako are out of sight, then Merle bursts out laughing. Davenport’s face shows fond amusement, and Lucretia just looks bewildered and pulls out her journal to start recording. Before she can write anything, Barry pulls the pen from her fingers.

“Go get some sleep, Lucretia,” he says, “we can figure out how to save the world in the morning.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in the middle of finals and I have a ton of other work to do, but I had to get this out of my system.


End file.
